24. So far from faith being opposed to Moses, he was an eminent example of it [Bengel].
refused--in believing self-denial, when he might possibly have succeeded at last to the throne of Egypt. Thermutis, Pharaoh's daughter, according to the tradition which Paul under the Spirit sanctions, adopted him, as Josephus says, with the consent of the king. Josephus states that when a child, he threw on the ground the diadem put on him in jest, a presage of his subsequent formal rejection of Thermutis' adoption of him. Faith made him to prefer the adoption of the King of kings, unseen, and so to choose ([He 11:25], ) things, the very last which flesh and blood relish.
25. He balanced the best of the world with the worst of religion, and decidedly chose the latter. "Choosing" implies a deliberate resolution, not a hasty impulse. He was forty years old, a time when the judgment is matured.
for a season--If the world has "pleasure" (Greek, "enjoyment") to offer, it is but "for a season." If religion bring with it "affliction," it too is but for a season; whereas its "pleasures are for evermore."
26. Esteeming--Inasmuch as he esteemed.
the reproach of Christ--that is, the reproach which falls on the Church, and which Christ regards as His own reproach, He being the Head, and the Church (both of the Old and New Testament) His body. Israel typified Christ; Israel's sufferings were Christ's sufferings (compare [2Co 1:5]; [Col 1:24]). As uncircumcision was Egypt's reproach, so circumcision was the badge of Israel's expectation of Christ, which Moses especially cherished, and which the Gentiles reproached Israel on account of. Christ's people's reproach will ere long be their great glory.
had respect unto, &c.--Greek, "turning his eyes away from other considerations, he fixed them on the (eternal) recompense" ([He 11:39], ).
27. not fearing the wrath of the king--But in [Ex 2:14] it is said, "Moses feared, and fled from the face of Pharaoh." He was afraid, and fled from the danger where no duty called him to stay (to have stayed without call of duty would have been to tempt Providence, and to sacrifice his hope of being Israel's future deliverer according to the divine intimations; his great aim, see on [He 11:23]). He did not fear the king so as to neglect his duty and not return when God called him. It was in spite of the king's prohibition he left Egypt, not fearing the consequences which were likely to overtake him if he should be caught, after having, in defiance of the king, left Egypt. If he had stayed and resumed his position as adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, his slaughter of the Egyptian would doubtless have been connived at; but his resolution to take his portion with oppressed Israel, which he could not have done had he stayed, was the motive of his flight, and constituted the "faith" of this act, according to the express statement here. The exodus of Moses with Israel cannot be meant here, for it was made, not in defiance, but by the desire, of the king. Besides, the chronological order would be broken thus, the next particular specified here, namely, the institution of the Passover, having taken place before the exodus. Besides, it is Moses' personal history and faith which are here described. The faith of the people ("THEY passed") is not introduced till [He 11:29].
endured--steadfast in faith amidst trials. He had fled, not so much from fear of Pharaoh, as from a revulsion of feeling in finding God's people insensible to their high destiny, and from disappointment at not having been able to inspire them with those hopes for which he had sacrificed all his earthly prospects. This accounts for his strange reluctance and despondency when commissioned by God to go and arouse the people ([Ex 3:15]; , ).
seeing him ... invisible--as though he had not to do with men, but only with God, ever before his eyes by faith, though invisible to the bodily eye ([Ro 1:20]; [1Ti 1:17]; ). Hence he feared not the wrath of visible man; the characteristic of faith ([He 11:1]; [Lu 12:4], ).
28. kept--Greek, "hath kept," the Passover being, in Paul's day, still observed. His faith here was his belief in the invisible God's promise that the destroying angel should pass over, and not touch the inmates of the blood-sprinkled houses ([Ex 12:23]). "He acquiesced in the bare word of God where the thing itself was not apparent" [Calvin].
the first-born--Greek neuter; both of man and beast.
29. they--Moses and Israel.
Red Sea--called so from its red seaweed, or rather from Edom (meaning "red"), whose country adjoined it.
which ... assaying to do--Greek, "of which (Red Sea) the Egyptians having made experiment." Rashness and presumption mistaken by many for faith; with similar rash presumption many rush into eternity. The same thing when done by the believer, and when done by the unbeliever, is not the same thing [Bengel]. What was faith in Israel, was presumption in the Egyptians.
were drowned--Greek, "were swallowed up," or "engulfed." They sank in the sands as much as in the waves of the Red Sea. Compare [Ex 15:12], "the earth swallowed them."
30. The soundings of trumpets, though one were to sound for ten thousand years, cannot throw down walls, but faith can do all things [Chrysostom].
seven days--whereas sieges often lasted for years.
31. Rahab showed her "faith" in her confession, [Jos 2:9], , "I know that Jehovah hath given you the land; Jehovah your God, is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath."
the harlot--Her former life adds to the marvel of her repentance, faith, and preservation ([Mt 21:31], ).
believed not--Greek, "were disobedient," namely, to the will of God manifested by the miracles wrought in behalf of Israel ([Jos 2:8-11]).
received--in her house ([Jos 2:1], [4, 6]).
with peace--peaceably; so that they had nothing to fear in her house. Thus Paul, quoting the same examples ([He 11:17], ) for the power of faith, as James ([Jas 2:21], 25; see on [Jas 2:21]; [Jas 2:25]) does for justification by works evidentially, shows that in maintaining justification by faith alone, he means not a dead faith, but "faith which worketh by love" ([Ga 5:6]).
32. the time--suitable for the length of an Epistle. He accumulates collectively some out of many examples of faith.
Gideon--put before Barak, not chronologically, but as being more celebrated. Just as Samson for the same reason is put before Jephthæ. The mention of Jephthæ as an example of "faith," makes it unlikely he sacrificed the life of his daughter for a rash vow. David, the warrior king and prophet, forms the transition from warrior chiefs to the "prophets," of whom "Samuel" is mentioned as the first.
33. subdued kingdoms--as David did ([2Sa 8:1], &c.); so also Gideon subdued Midian ([Jud 7:1-25]).
wrought righteousness--as Samuel did ([1Sa 8:9]; [12:3-23]; ); and David ([2Sa 8:15]).
obtained promises--as "the prophets" ([He 11:32]) did; for through them the promises were given (compare [Da 9:21]) [Bengel]. Rather, "obtained the fulfilment of promises," which had been previously the object of their faith ([Jos 21:45]; [1Ki 8:56]). Indeed, Gideon, Barak, &c., also obtained the things which God promised. Not "the promises," which are still future ([He 11:13], ).
stopped the mouths of lions--Note the words, "because he believed in his God." Also Samson ([Jud 14:6]), David ([1Sa 17:34-37]), Benaiah ([2Sa 23:20]).
34. Quenched the violence of fire--([Da 3:27]). Not merely "quenched the fire," but "quenched the power (so the Greek) of the fire." [Da 3:19-30] and 6:12-23 record the last miracles of the Old Testament. So the martyrs of the Reformation, though not escaping the fire, were delivered from its having power really or lastingly to hurt them.
escaped ... sword--So Jephthah ([Jud 12:3]); and so David escaped Saul's sword ([1Sa 18:11]; , ); Elijah ([1Ki 19:1], &c.; [2Ki 6:14]).
out of weakness ... made strong--Samson ([Jud 16:28]; ). Hezekiah ([Is 37:1-38:22]). Milton says of the martyrs, "They shook the powers of darkness with the irresistible power of weakness."
valiant in fight--Barak ([Jud 4:14], ). And the Maccabees, the sons of Matthias, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, who delivered the Jews from their cruel oppressor, Antiochus of Syria.
armies--literally, "camps" referring to [Jud 7:21]. But the reference may be to the Maccabees having put to flight the Syrians and other foes.
35. Women received their dead raised--as the widow of Zarephath ([1Ki 17:17-24]). The Shunammite ([2Ki 4:17-35]). The two oldest manuscripts read. "They received women of aliens by raising their dead." [1Ki 17:24] shows that the raising of the widow's son by Elijah led her to the faith, so that he thus took her into fellowship, an alien though she was. Christ, in [Lu 4:26], makes especial mention of the fact that Elijah was sent to an alien from Israel, a woman of Sarepta. Thus Paul may quote this as an instance of Elijah's faith, that at God's command he went to a Gentile city of Sidonia (contrary to Jewish prejudices), and there, as the fruit of faith, not only raised her dead son, but received her as a convert into the family of God, as Vulgate reads. Still, English Version may be the right reading.
and--Greek, "but"; in contrast to those raised again to life.
tortured--"broken on the wheel." Eleazar (2 Maccabees 6:18, end; 2 Maccabees 19:20,30). The sufferer was stretched on an instrument like a drumhead and scourged to death.
not accepting deliverance--when offered to them. So the seven brothers, 2 Maccabees 7:9, 11, 14, 29, 36; and Eleazar, 2 Maccabees 6:21, 28, 30, "Though I might have been delivered from death, I endure these severe pains, being beaten."
a better resurrection--than that of the women's children "raised to life again"; or, than the resurrection which their foes could give them by delivering them from death ([Da 12:2]; [Lu 20:35]; [Php 3:11]). The fourth of the brethren (referring to [Da 12:2]) said to King Antiochus, "To be put to death by men, is to be chosen to look onward for the hopes which are of God, to be raised up again by Him; but for thee there is no resurrection to life." The writer of Second Maccabees expressly disclaims inspiration, which prevents our mistaking Paul's allusion here to it as if it sanctioned the Apocrypha as inspired. In quoting Daniel, he quotes a book claiming inspiration, and so tacitly sanctions that claim.
36. others--of a different class of confessors for the truth (the Greek is different from that for "others," [He 11:35], alloi, heteroi).
trial--testing their faith.
imprisonment--as Hanani ([2Ch 16:10]), imprisoned by Asa. Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by Ahab ([1Ki 22:26], ).
37. stoned--as Zechariah, son of Jehoiada ([2Ch 24:20-22]; [Mt 23:35]).
sawn asunder--as Isaiah was said to have been by Manasseh; but see my Introduction to Isaiah.
tempted--by their foes, in the midst of their tortures, to renounce their faith; the most bitter aggravation of them. Or else, by those of their own household, as Job was [Estius]; or by the fiery darts of Satan, as Jesus was in His last trials [Glassius]. Probably it included all three; they were tempted in every possible way, by friends and foes, by human and satanic agents, by caresses and afflictions, by words and deeds, to forsake God, but in vain, through the power of faith.